Tag: Board gaming

For a few years now the American Library Association has put together a huge gaming event called International Games Week. The idea is simple. Get people to play games and use the local library as a great community space to do it! This year, Fireside Games is going to be participating here in our great town of Austin.

The event runs from November 4th through the 10th, but Justin and Anne-Marie will be spending this Saturday, November 10th at the Austin Central Library (the one with the 37 foot tall Grackle inspired sculpture!) running free demos of a bunch of games.

The Library is at 710 W. César Chávez St. and the gaming will be all the way up on the 6th floor. The event goes from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and our friends from Steve Jackson Games will be there as well, so there’s really no reason not to come join the fun.

If you’re looking for an event in your neck of the woods, check out the ALA’s website, where they have information about all the goings on. In addition, here’s a great map that shows all the libraries around the world that will be participating in IGW!

Can’t make it out to a library, or there isn’t an event near you? Not to worry. ALA has you covered with an entire page full of links to FREE Print-and-play games! Give your printer and your scissors a workout and you can get in on the fun as well.

No matter how you celebrate it, we hope you have a great time spreading the awesomeness that is board gaming during International Games Week!

Love pretty abstract games? You’ll want to play Grackles. On your turn, you take one of four actions and plot to have the most birds on telephone lines. Game stores across North America will be hosting free Grackles demos September 22–23.

Find a participating store near you from the list below and compete to line up your birds!

UPDATED 9/19

John and Sarah, the designers of Grackles will be running some very special demo events this weekend in their home state of California! If you’re in the area, come by for a unique chance to play the game and meet the very nice folks that designed it! (Click here for details)

Be ready for the post-apocalypse! Or at least have fun with real-time dice-rolling to scavenge for resources, building your compound, and fighting over Raiders and Mutant Creatures. Game stores across North America will be hosting free Remnants demos September 15–16.

Find a participating store near you from the list below and compete to become the lone survivor!

We’re thrilled with the reception that Grackles has received at Origins and Gen Con and can’t wait for everyone to have it in hand! Grackles releases September 5! Ask your local game store if you can grab a copy.

In a Nutshell Video

To learn a bit about the game before you pick up your copy, check out this video.

How-to-Play Video

To learn how to play before you pick up your copy, check outthis video.

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For retailers, we have our marketing kit for Grackles as well as all our other games on our retailer page.

For a variety of reasons, we had decided not to celebrate International Panic Day this year, but after a groundswell of requests, we thought a small-scale event would be nice. One thing led to another, and now we are thrilled to report that between June 29 and July 2, we will have 137 stores spanning 44 states and 3 countries opening their doors and teaching people how to play Castle Panic and Munchkin Panic.

For the event, we’ve created a new Castle Panic promo, called Fickle Fortune. And for Munchkin Panic, we have the original Bookmark of Free Masonry.

To see if there is a participating store near you, check out the list below. Have a great time playing Castle Panic and Munchkin Panic. Enjoy the day and the promos!

We can’t believe Origins is next week! We’re so excited to see everyone there. Come by booth 106 for free demos of Hotshots and Kaiju Crush (our new games this year), free promos and coupons for $5 off each game purchased, and special discount and sale items. We’ll also have play events every night in the Gaming Hall.

Demos: Be among the first to play our new games Hotshots and Kaiju Crush! Although they won’t be for sale until later this year, you can check them out at Origins. We’ll also have easy, step-by-step, self-guided demos of Bears! and Here, Kitty, Kitty! if you haven’t played those games.

Promos: Stop by to pick up the special River Tile promo for Hotshots and the Siphon Portal promo tile for Kaiju Crush. We’ll also give away the following promos with the purchase of the games they support.

Here, Kitty, Kitty!: Milkshake

Dastardly Dirigibles: Smoke Bomb

The Village Crone: Silver coaster

Castle Panic: 2017 ITTD Tower

The Wizard’s Tower: Crossbow coaster

The Dark Titan: Agranok Level 6

Engines of War: Jury Rig

Dead Panic: Laser Sight

Munchkin Panic: Potion of Mwahahaha!

Bloodsuckers: Midnight Sun

Bears! and Trail Mix’d: Alarm Clock and scoring sheets

Deals: In addition to receiving $5 off coupons for every game purchased at our booth, we will have discounted games and special items for sale.

Dead Panic: $30 (reg. $40)

Munchkin Panic: $25 (reg. $40)

The Village Crone: $30 (reg. $50)

Bloodsuckers: $20 (reg. $40)

2017 International TableTop Day Tower: $5

Fireside Games Mug: $5

Fireside Games Tumbler: $5

Events: We’re also hosting play events for the first time at Origins! We’ll be in the Gaming Hall from 6:00 to midnight, and here are the games you can get in on each night.

We are so excited to announce that Kaiju Crush is coming to a store near you this November! Tim Armstrong came to us last summer with an intriguing limited grid movement system with public objectives, and our own Justin De Witt thought it would be a blast to see giant monsters using those movements to stomp around a city. And of course, if you have giant monsters stomping around a city, you’ve got to have them fighting. After months of playtesting and iterative design work, we are proud and relieved that the files are off to the printer!

The premise of Kaiju Crush is that giant monsters have descended on the same city to fight for supremacy. On your turn, you’ll choose to use either your own Movement Card or a Shared Movement Card that’s accessible to everyone. Those are the only movement choices you’ll have on your turn. However, the Shared Movement Card will be changing throughout the game. When a player uses their own Movement Card, they swap their card with the shared one.

Using a Movement Card will land your Monster on a new City Tile (crushing it). You’ll pick up that City Tile and put one of your Territory Markers in its place. Both the City Tile and the Territory Marker help you gain points based on the Objective Cards. Some objectives give you points for the number of Territory Markers connected or unconnected, some give points based on how many or few City Tile Groups you claim, some give points for shapes you create on the city grid, and still others give in-game bonuses for the leader in City Tile Groups. So, although your movement is limited, your options are guided by the objectives you’re focusing on.

Then, there’s the fighting. I know, I made you wait 3 paragraphs before talking about the fighting! There are 2 ways to fight: 1) when you crush a building adjacent to another Monster and 2) when you land on a Territory Marker with another Monster. To fight, you’ll draw 5 Territory Markers and look at the underside. There, you will find 5 symbols that represent the way that you are fighting: firebreath, claw, tail, kick, and spikes. These symbols are part of an intransitive combat system, like so.

Each Monster has their own unique combat ability (as well as Special Abilities that change each game). The winner of the best of 5 rounds gets to choose a Combat Victory Token at random, whose value ranges from 1 to 3. If the challenger who landed on a Territory Marker with a Monster wins the battle, that challenger gets to replace the loser’s Territory Marker with their own. Very useful for meeting those objectives and/or preventing an opponent from meeting theirs!

When no Monster can move, the game is over, and the Monster with the most victory points is supreme! We’ve had a blast playtesting this game, and we can’t wait to be able to get out there and play it with you. In the meantime, we’ll be getting up our webpage for the game, posting rules, showing a how-to-play video, and all that good stuff!

Game for the Cause is an Austin, TX based gaming convention that donates ALL of its proceeds to SafePlace, an organization that works to end domestic violence. Fireside Games is proud to support this fantastic group of people in their mission. The Austin chapter is having their annual convention this weekend and we encourage you to attend, play some games, and help support a worthy cause.

Who: Austin chapter of Game for the CauseWhat: $20 at the door get you access to open boardgaming, silent auction, and gaming events where all money raised goes directly to SafePlaceWhen: October 16, 5pm–midnight and October 17th, 9am–midnightWhere: Parker Lane UMC, 2105 Parker Lane, Austin, TX 78741Why: Have a good time playing games while raising awareness and funds for SafePlace which strives to end sexual and domestic violence.Website:http://gameforthecause.com/

We are so grateful the gaming community at large is such a caring group of people who regularly use their shared love of games to raise awareness for social causes and help support their communities through charity events like this. However you choose to give back, we thank you! Stay Awesome and Game On!

Anne-Marie and Justin took a whirlwind trip to LA to attend the flagship TableTop Day event at Geek & Sundry’s secret Headquarters in Burbank. The day started off early with people lining up to get in. The “secret” headquarters weren’t so secret with giant, inflatable G&S logos everywhere, so it was pretty easy to find.

Justin and Anne-Marie got there early and were able to see the place while it was still empty. Geek & Sundry has a pretty sweet soundstage to work with!

Since we were sponsors of TableTop Day, we were given a VIP table where we could show off The Dark Titan. We had help this year from local game gurus, Eric Burgess and Devi Hughes. These two were awesome, running demos and keeping players entertained all day long. We couldn’t have done the event without them! Plus Eric brought famous strawberry donuts from The Donut Man, which of course Justin had to try.

Before long, the doors were open and gamers came flooding in! Tables were filled and many games began. People were excited to try The DarkTitan, but a lot of the people that came by the table hadn’t played Castle Panic yet at all. They soon realized they were getting a special treat when the designer of the game taught them how to play!

Devi gets some players started on a game of Castle Panic with The Dark Titan.

Felica Day kicked things off with a quick speech and was there all day playing games with people and shaking hands. Geek & Sundry had a library where players could check out games, as well as a merchandise booth where you could get a drink or pick up some sweet G&S swag!

While Eric and Devi taught some demos, Justin and Anne-Marie went out into the crowd to visit with fans and take in the whole event. We found some Bears! players, and Anne-Marie was able to teach the game to them, but she didn’t get the highest score that game!

There was a photo op with a couch and cutout of Felica Day that got a lot of attention that day as well as a Loser’s Couch. Here our buddy Patrick from Crash Games poses with a group of players that were defeated.

It was a great time with a great feel to it. Justin took this panorama shot standing in the middle of the soundstage, which kind of gives you a little bit of the feel of the whole thing.

Click to enlarge

The event was so large, they had to extend it out of the soundstage and into a tented area in the parking lot. And it was NEVER empty.

We also encountered a group of Munchkin players diving into the world of Munchkin Panic, so we stopped to talk with them. Once they realized they were talking with the designer of the game, they wanted to get their photo taken with Anne-Marie. It was a lot of fun to meet fans of our games at this event, since so many of them are new to gaming they are very passionate and very excited to meet the creators in person.

There were also 3 food trucks at the event providing Hawaiian shaved ice, Japanese-style hotdogs and gourmet grilled cheese. The lines may have been long, but it was worth it.

Later in the afternoon, Wil Wheaton arrived and thanked everyone for coming. It’s fun to see how drawn to him people are, and he really does make a great ambassador for gaming. He was running a live stream on Twitch that should be available shortly, and we’ll let you know once we have access to that.

We ran a bunch more demos and made a lot of players happy. Even if Agranok did crush their towers, players still left with smiles on their faces.

Eventually though, 6:00 rolled around, and it was time to close down the event. Wil and Felicia gave a very nice closing speech reminding everyone that this hobby brings us all together like nothing else and also pointing out that this year TableTop Day was celebrated on every continent on the planet, including Antarctica! It was really great to be a part of something so big, and we hope everyone had a blast playing games with old friends and new ones. Thanks to everyone that helped organize an event, or just joined one to make it more fun!

Back in March when we were at T.A.B.L.E., I had the chance to teach Dead Panic to J.R. Honeycutt, one of the co-hosts of the DFW Nerd Night and Brian, one of the authors for their review site The Nerd’s Table. J.R. just posted his review and summary of the game, and I think it’s a great example of the kind of experience you can have with Dead Panic.

What made this game special was that J.R. and Brian both decided to role-play their characters to a degree I hadn’t seen before. Oh sure, if you’re playing Al, the construction worker, you’ll be fixing walls, but what if you’re playing Barbara, the convict? What are your motivations? How would you act in a crisis? If you think a board game can’t handle that kind of play, you should think again. Continue reading Player vs Player in Dead Panic

Jeff McGinnis of the Toledo Free Press just posted a great article encouraging attendees of the upcoming BASHCon XXIX to try some new games, one of which just happens to be Castle Panic. As Jeff says, ““Castle Panic” provides just enough to bring genuine strategy to the process of playing, while being easy enough to understand that even the most casual of gamers can dive right [in].”

In describing BASHCon Jeff remarks, “One of the best parts about the event is the ability for players to share their passion for particular games with other gamers, maybe spreading their love for certain titles to new people and gaining a few new favorites of their own.”

That sounds like a great time to us! We hope all the attendees at BASHCon have a great time and may the dice always roll in your favor!